Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy has given major healthcare associations weeks to provide evidence they are complying with President Donald Trump’s executive order banning the promotion and performance of child sex-changes.
Cassidy, chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), sent letters Tuesday to several hospital associations and a major health insurer asking the groups to provide evidence they are complying with President Trump’s order “Protecting Children From Chemical And Surgical Mutilation,” to the HELP committee by Aug. 7, 2025. In the letters which were exclusively provided the Daily Caller News Foundation, Dr. Cassidy states he is working “hand in glove” with the Trump administration to protect children from the harms of child sex-change interventions, which include loss of fertility, loss of sexual function, decreased bone density and the removal of healthy body parts.
“As a doctor, I am extremely concerned that medical organizations continue to promote irreversible gender transition procedures for children against scientific data,” Cassidy wrote in a letter to the Children’s Hospital Association (CHA).
“It is critical that medical standards of care for the treatment of children reflect the best scientific evidence available at present, consistent with current regulatory requirements for providers,” the letter says.
BREAKING: @POTUS protects children from harmful sex changes in a new executive order entitled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.”
Do No Harm Executive Director Kristina Rasmussen remarks:
“Children and teenagers will be better protected, and parents…
— Do No Harm (@donoharm) January 28, 2025
The National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), Federation of American Hospitals (FAH) and American Hospital Association (AHA) also received letters. The organizations were asked to provide to the committee with the copies of its child sex-change practice guidelines, the amount of federal funds used to provide its members’ education on child sex-changes and to describe any revisions the organizations have made to its member guidelines on “chemical, surgical, and behavioral interventions for gender transition services for minors” in reaction to Trump’s order.
Cassidy noted the healthcare associations have a “critical role to play” in helping medical providers comply with the order and clarified they should not rely on medical guidance from the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) which is based on “junk science.”
“Providers must align with the evidence outlined in the President’s EO and related agency guidance and enforcement actions, and your association has a critical role to play,” states a letter sent to the Children’s Hospital Association.
“Providers understandably may be confused by the conflicting provisions of WPATH’s standards and clinical guidelines, as they seek to comply with applicable federal requirements and avoid sanctions,” states the letter.
Earlier this month, I urged the World Professional Association for Transgender Health to follow President Trump’s order to protect children from chemical and surgical castration, as it continues promoting puberty blockers and irreversible gender surgeries despite scientific data.
— U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (@SenBillCassidy) April 12, 2025
CHA represents more than 200 children’s hospitals and in the past has advocated for child sex-changes. It recognized the “central role” children’s hospitals play in the promotion of gender ideology in a March 2022 statement. In October 2022, alongside the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association, it wrote a letter to then Attorney General Merrick Garland asking he investigate and prosecute “organizations” and “individuals” opposing child sex-changes, alleging an “intentional campaign of disinformation” was provoking threats of violence against children’s hospitals.
CHA, NACHC, and FAH did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
The AHA told the DCNF it had “received Senator Cassidy’s letter and will be responding by the deadline.”
Dr. Cassidy also sent letters to AHIP, a health insurance trade association, and Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, a major health insurance provider network, asking if their members were providing federal insurance plans that provided coverage for child sex-change procedures and to provide actions they were taking to comply with a June 2025 Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services rule that prohibits health insurance companies from providing “sex trait modification procedures” as an Essential Health Benefit in 2026.
AHIP did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment. The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association told the DCNF it is a “national federation of independent Blue Cross Blue Shield companies where each company is responsible for making its own decisions.”
Cassidy has been leading Senate Republicans in efforts to protect children from harmful child sex-changes as chair of the HELP Committee.
In October 2024, he launched an investigation into medical organizations promoting child sex-changes and called on the Endocrine Society, WPATH, and the American Academy of Pediatrics to “immediately stop the promotion of social affirmation, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries for children and adolescents.” In April 2025 he called on WPATH to comply with President Trump’s order banning child sex-changes.
The Department of Justice announced July 9 that it had issued nearly 20 subpoenas to medical provider’s and clinics that perform “transgender medical procedures on children,” as part of an investigation into “healthcare fraud” in the child sex-change industry, as mentioned in the letters.
The announcement was first made at a Federal Trade Commission workshop featuring medical experts across that country that highlighted the harms of child sex change, exposed the bad science upholding gender medicine and included personal testimony from detransitioners who’ve been harmed by sex-change medical interventions.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include confirmation from AHA that it has received Cassidy’s letter.
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